Government releases Rs 9,940 crore to states for Smart Cities mission

The Centre has released nearly Rs 9,940 crore to the states so far for the Smart Cities Mission, with Maharashtra accounting for the highest amount of Rs 1,378 crore, followed by Madhya Pradesh getting Rs 984 crore, according to government data.

The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has announced 99 cities for central assistance under the BJP government’s flagship programme.

The total proposed investment in these cities was Rs 2.03 lakh crore. Maharashtra with eight cities, including Pune and Nashik has received central grant of Rs 1,378 crore so far, followed by Madhya Pradesh, with seven cities getting central grant of Rs 984 crore, the ministry data shows.

Tamil Nadu, with the highest of 11 cities selected for the mission, has so far received Rs 848 crore. Karnataka with seven cities got Rs 836 crore. Rajasthan with four cities– Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer–received Rs 784 crore.

Andhra Pradesh, whose four cities were selected, received a central assistance of Rs 588 crore, Uttar Pradesh with 10 cities received Rs 547 crore and Gujarat, whose six cities were chosen, got Rs 509 crore, the data showed. Under the mission, the cities propose to take up various projects, including “smart” roads, rejuvenation of water bodies, cycle tracks, walking paths, smart classrooms, skill development centres, upgradation of health facilities, and pan city projects like integrated command and control centre.

The Centre released Rs 8 crore to West Bengal whose New Town Kolkata was selected for the mission in May 2016. However, the state government had already announced that it would not participate in the Smart Cities Mission. Earlier, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that as on January 17, there were 2,948 projects worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore in various stages of implementation, while 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore had been completed.

Stating that Smart City Mission was setting a benchmark in terms of implementation of projects, Puri had underlined that the progress of implementation depended on the round of selection of the city as it takes around 15-18 months after the selection to call tenders for the projects.

The Centre provides about Rs 500 crore to each city under the mission, with Rs 200 crore funding in the first year of its selection, followed by about Rs 100 crore over the next three years.The release of funds depends on certain conditions, including satisfactory physical and financial progress indicated by utilisation certificate that the cities have to submit to the ministry.

States that have received around Rs 200 crore so far included Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tripura.States that got around Rs 100 crore included Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim.